Balancing Quality Healthcare Services and Costs Through Collaborative Leadership.

Abstract

This review assesses the effectiveness of collaborative leadership strategies in balancing quality healthcare services and costs. Quantitative analysis of 39 studies answered research questions to identify collaborative leadership strategies employed by healthcare managers to address the cost of care, determine the most effective strategies for managing this cost, and evaluate how collaborative leadership's cost-reduction strategies affect quality of care. The intrahospital collaboration strategy was noted to be the most frequently used strategy (53.8%). The other strategies included patient-based collaboration (41.0%) and interorganizational collaboration (17.9%). The patient-based collaborative strategy offered significantly higher cost-reduction effectiveness (31.9% ± 6.005). The cost effectiveness of the intrahospital collaboration (25.3% ± 2.014) and interorganizational collaboration strategy (20.2% ± 4.229) were also significant. The adoption of the patient-based collaboration strategy was associated with enhanced quality of healthcare (62.5%), while the interorganizational collaboration strategy had a greater proportion of noneffect on quality of services (71.4%). Therefore, healthcare leaders should facilitate the adoption of patient-based and interorganizational collaboration strategies to manage healthcare costs.